I have a little secret for you. I’m not great at cake decorating. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone!

By cake decorating, I mean using frosting and a pastry bag to make roses or fleur de lis, write words, or create pretty swirls. However, I am fantastic at using other creative ways to make cakes beautiful! You can do it, too! My newest way to decorate is with custom stencils! I did this last week on a super delicious ice cream pie!

Preparation:

Cut a piece of parchment paper that is slightly bigger than the top surface of your cake (or pie).

Use a pencil to write whatever you’d like, being sure that the letters fit within the measurements of your cake. Then use an exacto knife to cut the letters out. Be sure to save things like the triangles for capital A’s, and circles for the inside of B’s, etc.

Once everything is cut out, lay the stencil on top of your cake, being sure to add those saved triangles and circles for the letters that need them! (If it’s ice cream pie, but sure it’s firmly frozen at this point.)

Now use finely ground cookie crumbs (Oreos are pictured below), or sprinkles or any sort, to fill in the negative areas of the stencil. You’ll use more than you need, and it will likely end up all over the parchment paper. It will, however, only stick to the areas you want it to.

Gently use a pastry brush or your hands to remove any excess cookie crumbs or sprinkles. (With a frozen ice cream pie, you can actually almost turn the pie upside down to let the excess slide off.)

Very carefully lift the stencil off and…..Voila! Beautiful!

Here are a few more creative and fun ways to decorate cakes:

Fresh flowers! (Just be sure to wash and dry the stems before putting them in the cake.)

Sprinkles, sprinkles, sprinkles! All over!

Alphabet cookies are great for “writing!” You can even use a tiny paint brush to color them with food coloring. Chocolate chips are another great way to spell out words!

Some additional notes:

Of course you can cut out anything you’d like. How about hearts filled with red or pink sprinkles for Valentine’s Day!? Please note that if you use the stencil on a cake with a soft frosting, after you remove the stencil, you’ll have to smooth out the frosting around the words or design.

Valentina's passion is food, and she loves spending time in her "kitchen retreat," as she refers to that room in her house. Valentina develops recipes for creative and comforting food that works perfectly for casual entertaining. Both her recipes and food photography have been featured many times on popular food websites and in print. Valentina shares her beautiful photographs as well as new and interesting recipes almost daily on her blog, Cooking on the Weekends.

Outside the worlds of food and photography, Valentina's other passion is her family (including her two young boys, her husband and her puppy, Maple.)

To learn more about Valentina and where her work has been featured, visit her About page at Cooking On The Weekends.